If the Boston Symphony Orchestra needed to take the measure of newly appointed music director Andris Nelsons, they could not have chosen a better test than Richard Strauss' opera "Salomé."

Nelsons' performance Thursday evening at Symphony Hall, a dramatic tour-de-force, showed that the BSO has not only hired a conductor with extensive musical gifts, but an astute and theatrical stage coordinator as well.

Strauss' shocking - if we can't be shocked at an onstage beheading, and subsequent love making, then we can't be shocked at all - one act drama demands everything from a conductor, and from the musicians.

The score is a beastly, interwoven blast of themes and motives, the instruments so thoroughly intertwined with the voices that not a moment's respite appears. The singers, almost a dozen in all, with four major roles, demand the conductor's near constant attention. And "Salomé" runs at least two hours, without a break.

Nelsons certainly had ample practice for this performance, which still counts as his "preview" period in advance of next season, his first full year at the helm. He conducted the Vienna State Opera in three "Salomé" performances last month, and last week brought that orchestra to Carnegie Hall for a repeat.

Along the way, Nelsons has worked with the electrifying German soprano Gun-Brit Barkman in the title role. Barkman looked as if she had stepped right off of one of Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations to Oscar Wilde's original play. With her alabaster complexion, jet-black, blunt-cut hair, and sweeping robe (a direct copy from Beardsley), the dramatic soprano looked every bit the 1890s femme fatale she was portraying.

"Salomé" weaves the biblical tale of Herod's stepdaughter, who, having her amorous advances to John the Baptist (Jochanaan in Strauss' libretto) rebuked, demands his head as revenge. Her "Dance of the Seven Veils," an orchestral highlight of the opera, symbolizes both her irresistible charms, and Herod's incestuous weakness.

Barkman sang and acted with extraordinary aplomb. Her character is at turns fetching, terrifying and repellent, with the music depicting that character altering to suit the moment. At times the pitches Barkman was required to sing bordered on the inhuman. All of it - singing, theatrics, costuming - came together in a role-defining performance.

Nelsons was no less captivating on the podium. BSO regulars will come to love his emotionally charged musicianship; he is the polar opposite of a reserved, gentlemanly (and no less effective) leader like BSO conductor emeritus Bernard Haitink. He looked like he was dancing with an imaginary Salomé during the "Seven Veils" interlude, and squeezed every bit of emotion from every single measure in the score.

That score has a Wagnerian sweep, with repeating motives depicting characters and moods, and a texture with unending surprises. The orchestra - offering far too many brilliant moments to single out individually - responded alertly to Nelsons' demands.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of "Salomé" does not repeat. The BSO begins a complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with soloist Yefim Bronfman on Thursday, March 13 at 8:00 p.m. For tickets and information call 888-266-1200 or visit www.bso.org.